Sorting Robotics

Market position

Sorting Robotics focuses on specialized, higher-priced infusion and coating equipment within cannabis pre-roll manufacturing, a niche where it says few competing catalog machines exist. It competes with vertically integrated pre-roll line providers such as STM Canna (whose RocketBox Pro is priced at $59,900 and processes 5,000 pre-rolls per hour) and Canapa by Paxiom; with Accelerant Manufacturing's production-as-a-service model that converts equipment capex into a per-joint fee; with rolling and cone-filling specialists RollPros (Blackbird/TruRoll) and GreenBroz (Holy Roller); and potentially with traditional tobacco equipment manufacturers such as Körber, which has expanded into hemp production. Reported customers include Stiiizy, Tilray, and Blue Fox Brands.

The company positions its engineering pedigree — founders and engineers who worked at NASA and JPL on landers, rovers, and precision manipulators — as the basis for reliability in a category it describes as lacking industrial-grade tooling. It states that generic pick-and-place automation designed for pharma or food jams, smears, or degrades terpenes when applied to flower, kief, and live rosin, and that there are few reliable catalog machines for hash-hole, solventless infusion, or kief-coated cones at scale. Stardust is described as the first machine to automate kief coating. Every machine is manufactured, tuned, and QA'd within 20 miles of the company's Los Angeles shop, and the Jiko infusion system is described as patented.

Technology

Precision robotics combined with computer vision and AI. Stardust uses a Kawasaki 6-axis robotic arm with computer vision to apply kief, bubble hash, distillate, or other binders to pre-rolls with recipe-controlled dusting. Jiko injects concentrate through a heated, pressure-regulated system with advanced heat control for high-viscosity rosin and hash. WavePak uses harmonic wave technology with self-adjusting density for cone filling. Telti provides autonomous decision-making for unstructured assembly. LAKA, the company's production analytics platform, integrates across machines to track cycle counts, quality metrics, and maintenance needs in real time, with cameras, sensors, and touchscreen recipe selection at the machine level.

Go-to-market

Direct sales to licensed cannabis producers, brands, growers, and co-packers, supported by live product demos and ROI assessments booked through the company website, a free engineering assessment offer for custom integration prospects, an in-house sales team of account executives led by a chief revenue officer, and trade-show presence including MJBizCon, where Telti was unveiled. Customer testimonials and trade-press coverage in outlets such as Cannabis Tech and Cannabis Science & Technology support the funnel.

Licensed cannabis manufacturers, brands, growers, processors, and co-packers, including multi-state operators and high-volume producers making more than 100,000 pre-rolls per day. Named customers and reference operators include Stiiizy, Tilray, Blue Fox Brands, Delta Munchies, HoneyKing, and Pecos Valley Production.

Geography

Headquartered and manufacturing in Los Angeles, California, with all machines built within 20 miles of its shop. Systems are deployed across more than 120 facilities in the United States and Canada, with the company citing 250+ active deployments worldwide. Technicians travel to customer sites for installation, commissioning, and operator training.

History

The company was founded in 2018 in Los Angeles by three engineers working on a card sorting machine and was accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2019 batch. In 2020 the team redirected its robotics work toward cannabis manufacturing and built the first Jiko, which reached customer floors in 2021 at about 1,000 infused joints per hour. Stardust, an automated kief coating robot, launched in 2023 after a four-month development cycle. Telti, an autonomous robot arm for unstructured assembly, was unveiled at MJBizCon in 2025, and WavePak, a precision pre-roll packing machine, was shown publicly in 2026. As of the company's about page, it has shipped five products and deployed more than 250 machines while remaining based in Los Angeles.

Risks & controversies

The business is shaped by cannabis regulatory constraints that bar interstate commerce and require state-by-state production facilities. Competitive pressures include lower-cost integrated pre-roll lines, production-as-a-service pricing models that eliminate customer capex, and the potential entry of large tobacco equipment manufacturers whose scale could commoditize the processes Sorting Robotics automates at premium price points.